Without going into an entire back story of Thomas (Warrior) Gabriel Fischer’s musical back story, I will save that for my forthcoming interview with him, it is undeniable the impact he has had on the metal community.  The Celtic Frost reformation album from 2006, Monotheist, is one of my all time favorite extreme metal albums and proved Tom still had gas left in the tank.  When Frost disbanded, yet again, I was distraught, but Tom quickly announced the jewel throne would rise again; thus Triptykon was formed.  The 2010 debut, Eparistera Daimones and Shatter ep, that same year, showed the world Triptykon was now a juggernaut and a force to be reckoned with.  The full length continued along as if Frost had never broken up, continuing with the doom, black, goth and death metal styles that made Monotheist so special and ultimately a monstrous album.  I did feel that part of the debut was a little less cohesive than Monotheist and those minor quibbles have seemingly been corrected on Melana Chasmata.  Again a long player of an album this is clocking in at over an hour, with 9 multi faceted songs to keep your attention

Album opener “Tree of Suffocating Souls” clocks in at close to 8 minutes and begins unlike a metal album.  It is all flushed away once the tune comes through with Tom sounding as dark as he did in the past.  Song is equipped with trademark Warrior styled grunts and my god the GUITAR tone.  Heavier and better than Eparistera Daimones.  The entire line-up is intact from the last recording, thus making this a stronger album than the first.  Everyone is in top form and the drums sounding deep on this and punishing. Regardless, Tom’s vocals and lyrics the way he annunciates on this song, is vicious.  “Breathing” comes in slow and heavy with atmospheric guitars before galloping into a full on death metal speed attack with varied vocals from Tom, going for the gruff/deep moments and more somber tones that he initially experimented with on the 3^rd Celtic Frost album, Into the Pandemonium, which I also mention since there are some ITP musical influences, on some of the later tracks.  Suffice it to say this song is intense, fast and has some cool guitar soling.  “Boleskine House” starts off almost sounding like something off the first Danzig album, however the brutal distorted bass playing of Vanja comes through, almost having the heaviness of older Napalm Death, thus making the depth to the track suffocatingly heavy.  The varied vocals of Tom, female vocals, heavy riffing and just plain emotion that is wrapped up in the tune and lyrics are fantastic.  “Altar of Deceit” is slow and atmospheric, but has some more goth and doom overtones actually, again tying the listener to the emotional impact that Triptykon so seamlessly wields.

This would not be a Triptykon album without a song well into the double digits, so “Black Snow” rolls in at over 12 minutes, but never gets boring and is thankfully shorter than the 19 minute “The Prolonging” off the last album.  Album closes out with “Waiting”, which has quite the emotional impact and is done so beautiful and there is a sense of coldness as well.  Melancholic and sadness entered me while listening to this track.

The album is produced so well with all the instruments and vocals and other sounds going on coming through incredible.  The guitar tone is simply astonishing, heavy, thick and dense.  Lyrics surround death, love, depression, hopelessness and loss-which all go perfectly with the surrounding landscapes this album pushes forward with.  While there are the speed moments sprinkled here and there, the album is mid paced, slower and the focus is on HEAVY.  Tom’s vocals sound incredible and I will be hard pressed to find an album, in 2014, that tops this brilliance.  Buy or Die a slow morbid death…UGGGGHHH!

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